We received a press release from Theater Ten Ten in New York City about their upcoming stage production of NORTHANGER ABBEY, which will run from October 20 through November 19, 2006.

From the press release:

Comedy! Adventure! Romance!…Murder? Lynn Marie Macy’s hilarious adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel follows the adventures of Catherine Morland, a passionate - though impressionable small town girl, who is perhaps too devoted to gothic thrillers. Young Catherine thirsts for adventure and soon finds it in the fashionable resort of Bath, England. Hosted by Mr. & Mrs. Allen, her wealthy neighbors from home, she experiences her first social whirl amidst the Thorpe and Tilney families while obsessively reading her favorite new novel, Radcliffe’s The Mysteries Of Udolpho. Scenes from the novel, experienced in Catherine’s vivid imagination, are inter-woven with the comparatively civil but no less eventful, adventures of Catherine’s real life. The result is a swashbuckling Wizard of Oz-like journey through Catherine’s two worlds, culminating in her unexpected visitation to the Tilney’s mysterious estate, Northanger Abbey.

Director David Scott, who helmed the highly successful productions of Shaw’s The Apple Cart, and Turgenev’s A Month In The Country at Theater Ten Ten, brings his wit and knowledge to this classic tale. The Fight Director is Ricki Ravitts, and the choreographer, Judith Jarosz. The creative team includes: Set Design by Joseph J. Egan (The Great American Trailer Park Musical) Costume Design by Jeanette Aultz Look (A Month In The Country) Lighting Design by Bradley James King, and Sound Design by DeLisa White. The team also includes Annalisa Loeffler (assistant director/dialect coach) and Production Stage Manager Shauna Horn.

The cast features: Greg Oliver Bodine*, Esther David*, Devin Delliquanti, David Fuller*, Tatiana Gomberg*, Summer Hagen*, Sheila Joon, Megan Loomis*, Timothy McDonough, Tim Morton*, Lisa Riegel*, Julian Stetkevch*, and Sarah Tillson *. *Appearing courtesy of Actor’s Equity Association

One of New York City’s most innovative theater companies, and the longest continuously operating Equity Company, Off Broadway, the multi-award winning Theater Ten Ten is known for its high standards and entertaining conceptualizations. Its mission emphasizes non-traditional casting and it has gained a reputation for performing classics and contemporary pieces that are well cast and fast-paced.

Dates and Times
Friday, October 20 (Opening) Press is invited beginning Saturday, October 21st
October 20-23, 27-30, November 3-6, 10-13, 16-19.
All Fri., Sat., & Mon. performances are at 8:00pm
All Sunday performances are 3:00pm matinees only.
There is one Thursday performance on November 16, with an early 7:00pm curtain.

Tickets and Reservations
All tickets are $20.00 (cash only at the door). Reservations: 212-288-3246, Ext. 3. (24-hour hotline)
Theater Ten Ten participates in the TDF Voucher Program - TDF/V
Theater Ten Ten is located at 1010 Park Avenue, between 84th & 85th Street.

Background Notes

Jane Austen 1775 – 1817

Long considered one of the greatest authors in the English language, Jane Austen did not in her own lifetime achieve notoriety, fame and popularity equal to that of Ann Radcliffe. In fact, her novels were published anonymously until after her death. Jane Austen was the youngest daughter of an English country rector and a happy member of a large family. She never married by choice and died untimely of Addison’s disease at the age of 42. Northanger Abbey was first written in 1798 and sold to Crosby & Son under the title of “Susan”. It was never published. She later bought back the novel and revised it to its present version, which was not published until after her death in 1818. Austen’s other novels include: Sense & Sensibility 1811, Pride & Prejudice 1813, Mansfield Park 1814, Emma 1815 and Persuasion, also published after her death in 1818.

Ann Radcliffe 1764 - 1823

Ann Radcliffe was born Ann Ward, daughter to a gentleman in “trade” in London. She was brought up in easy circumstances and married William Radcliffe, a political journalist in 1787. Her writing talents were first recognized with the publication of A Sicilian Romance in 1790. An Italian Romance and Romance Of The Forest followed in 1791. Her wildly successful novels The Mysteries Of Udolpho and The Italian were written in 1794 and 1797 respectively. For years to come they became “required” reading for gentleman and ladies alike. Sir Walter Scott considered her to be the first modern English writer of the poetical novel. Her method of combining horror with sentiment and the picturesque inspired multitudes of imitators culminating in such gothic classics as Shelly’s Frankenstein (1816), The Bronte sisters Jane Eyre (1847) and Wuthering Heights (1847) and Stoker’s Dracula (1897). She did not write much after 1797. Her last novel Gaston de Blondeville was not published until 1826. three years after her death. She suffered from spasmodic asthma and died of a sudden attack in 1823.

Adaptor’s note

Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey was written as a satire on the Gothic Romance novels, which were so popular in her day. I was inspired to include Catherine’s Udolpho fantasies in this adaptation because modern audiences are unlikely to be familiar with the work of Radcliffe (who unlike Jane Austen has fallen into relative obscurity). Ann Radcliffe was one of the most celebrated and widely read authors of the period. In her novel Jane Austen’s recurring references to The Mysteries Of Udolpho were reliably based on the presumption that the reader would be well acquainted with the particulars of Radcliffe’s work. In this stage adaptation Miss Catherine Morland and the audience simultaneously discover Radcliffe’s novel. The sharply contrasting worlds of the authors, give free reign to Austen’s wit and comic genius.

Playwright Biography

Lynn Marie Macy (Playwright) Ms. Macy is the Resident Playwright at Theater Ten Ten, and looks forward to the publication of Northanger Abbey, A Romantic Gothic Comedy by The New York Theatre Experience in an anthology entitled Playing with Canons. She studied playwriting at New Dramatists in New York City and before moving to New York was a resident acting company member at the Minneapolis Playwrights Center. In addition to Northanger Abbey, A Romantic Gothic Comedy (Distilled Spirits Theatre; Blue Room Theatre, CA) her other plays include Innocent Diversions, A Christmas Entertainment with Jane Austen and Friends (also director, Distilled Spirits Theatre, Theater Ten Ten), A Thousand Merry Conceits, A Private Audience with Nell Gwyn (Theater Ten Ten; Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Crunching Numbers (published by NYTE in Plays and Playwrights for the New Millennium), and a new adaptation/translation of Schiller’s Intrigue & Love (Jean Cocteau Repertory Theater, NYC).

Press Quotes from previous productions

Lynn Marie Macy’s Northanger Abbey is a thorough delight, a treat to the senses, and a gift to the imagination.
Playwright Macy deftly weaves incidents from the novel as replayed in Catherine’s vigorous imagination with the comparatively placid but no less eventful incidents in Catherine’s real world. The result is a delicious Wizard of Oz like journey through Catherine’s two worlds culminating in her unexpected visitation to the Tilney’s estate, Northanger Abbey. Austen via Macy triumphs as storyteller par excellence. And Macy as adaptor triumphs too, by beguiling us not only with this splendid and compelling tale, but also with a remarkably felicitous depiction of Austen’s world. Northanger Abbey’s got it all…action, adventure, wit and enough plot for half a dozen plays. I urge you not to miss it. Brava!
Nytheatre.com

Lynn Marie Macy’s entertaining adaptation is titled Northanger Abbey, A Romantic Gothic Comedy, and it is an ambitious attempt to meld the Austen Novel with Radcliffe’s The Mysteries Of Udolpho, the 18th century tale Northanger Abbey sets out to satirize…this is an ingenious concept. The two stories in the two styles give the large cast many opportunities. Playwright Macy makes Catherine into a lively narrator often endowed with Austen’s editorial comments.
Back Stage

At its best entertainment can teach you something while keeping you amused; such is the case with the Blue Room Theater’s production of Northanger Abbey, A Romantic Gothic Comedy. Playwright Lynn Marie Macy’s decision to tell the stories of both Austen’s novel of manners and Radcliffe’s over-the-top potboiler romance creates a delightful contrast. Ms. Macy’s decision to tell the stories of both Austen’s novel of manners and Radcliffe’s over-the-top, potboiler romance creates a delightful contrast. In one scene, you have the people of 19th-century England going through the required motions of polite society. In the next, you watch stereotypically overdramatic romance-novel characters navigate through the tumultuous Europe of a century earlier - some with amusing accents reminiscent of “The Godfather.” Ultimately in Northanger Abbey, Catherine must decide whether she wants to live in the real world or play out a fantasy life. It is a lesson we still need to learn today.
Enterprise Record

Northanger Abbey is probably the most adventurous of Jane Austen’s novels, in that it steps outside the more sedate milieu of her other works. In its day, it was no doubt rather daring. The Mysteries of Udolpho includes duels, and over-the-top declarations of love from young men…with one or two hauntings thrown in for good measure. You could say that this is the story of a girl growing into true womanhood, dealing with the subtleties of human beings, and told with beautiful language.
Off Off Broadway Review

Catherine uses Udolpho as a kind of template for determining who’s who, leaping from her early 19th century English setting to the fantasy of Radcliffe’s continental-draped dream world. That modern playwright Lynn Marie Macy has managed a seamless juxtaposition of the two books that is both fluid and hilarious is a marvelous feat.
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